In February, Mitchell Institute Fellow: Legacy, Professor Cheryl Lawther travelled to the US to give a series of high-profile lectures and seminars on her recently published book ‘Constructing Victimhood: Beyond Innocence and Guilt in Transitional Justice’ (Oxford University Press, 2025).

At Rutgers University, and hosted by Professor Alex Hinton, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers, Professor Lawther delivered two seminar papers on victimhood, haunting and the failure to deal with the past in Northern Ireland.

Cheryl then travelled to the University of Notre Dame where she was hosted by Professor Josefina Echavarría Alvarez at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and engaged with the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies.

At Notre Dame, Cheryl gave a high-profile lecture on her new book and received wide acclaim.

Reflecting on her trip, Professor Lawther expressed her gratitude for the Global Reputation Fund which made this travel possible and looks forward to taking forward the connections made at both Rutgers University and the University of Notre Dame.